


Flashes in Family and Bold

by brunchywrites



Category: DCU
Genre: Child Abuse, Other, POV Barry Allen, he's a good uncle, more tags to come
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 07:45:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14828267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brunchywrites/pseuds/brunchywrites
Summary: In Barry's opinion nothing really beat having the company of a three year old on a Saturday. Wally was just.. such an excitable kid. He never complained, never nothinged really. Wally was always up for a challenge, always ready to learn new things or listen to stories. It was cute, really. Barry loved the little squirt to death.





	Flashes in Family and Bold

In Barry's opinion nothing really beat having the company of a three year old on a Saturday. Wally was just.. such an excitable kid. He never complained, never nothinged really. Wally was always up for a challenge, always ready to learn new things or listen to stories. It was cute, really. Barry loved the little squirt to death but if there was anyone who loved him more it was Iris.   
She had her arms protectively around him, squeezing him in a giant hug that made the toddler giggle and squirm, "You're the best, Wally World," she laughed and kissed his cheek.  
  
"Awe, then what does that make me?" Barry asked, walking over and poking Iris' side and Wally peeked up, his hazely eyes narrowing down so close his long lashes hid the color.    
  
"Makes you on thin ice, mister," Wally had said, pointing a very threatening, very chubby finger at him. It would've been intimidating if Wally was an adult but in that cute baby drawl.. Barry could only smile. God, his nephew really had no business being this adorable yet there they were.  
  
"Where'd you learn that one, pal?" Barry asked.   
  
Wally just shrugged and smiled, laying his head down on his aunt's shoulder.   
  
Barry had a feeling that he knew where Wally had learned that phrase.   
  
+++  
  
Wally was seven years old when they started the weekend visits, Rudy had expressed an irrational worry about how his son was doing in school and Barry offered to keep him on the weekends to do homework and study. Barry didn't want to question Rudy but he thought it was entirely ridiculous how he worried about a seven year old's grades. They didn't honestly matter until highschool but Rudy was strict, and Barry wasn't Wally's parent so he couldn't stop it either.   
  
What he could do is help Wally work, and he honestly had no clue why Rudy was worried. Wally was an absolutely brilliant kid, he was at least three years ahead of his grade level and once Barry sat him down in the living room to do his work he did it until he was done. What exactly did Wally do to "slack off" as his dad had put it?   
  
Barry watched Wally stop and clench his pencil tightly, then sigh heavily.   
  
"What's wrong kiddo?" He sat down next to him and looked over at the math sheet that Wally was almost finished with.   
  
"I don't understand this problem, if triangles have three sides and there's seven triangles why don't I just multiple the three by seven so it's faster? Miss Adams says we have to add and have to show our work but it's so- so-"   
  
"Tedious?"   
  
Wally nodded, getting to work on doing the adding, "She says I gotta show my work because I'm too ahead of the other classes. Mom thinks I'll skip third grade and go straight to fourth and I can't wait. I'm tired of doing all this when there's faster ways."   
  
Jesus, Wally really was ahead of the game by a long shot. He wondered if the pressure to perform well was actually getting to his nephew. His sweet, seven year old nephew, who spoke like he was older than he was all of the time.   
  
"You know, you can be just in second grade, Wally."   
  
But he shook his head, finishing up the problem and putting the worksheet back in his folder. There was something sad in the way his eyes turned down that made something tick in Barry's head.   
  
"It's not good enough," Wally whispered, voice hollowed, "I have to do better."   
  
"Hey- hey kiddo no, you're so young you've got a whole life to do better. Okay? C'mon Wall-man. Let's take a break from this work and go take an ice cream break."   
  
"But-"  
  
Barry shook his finger, "No buts little dude, I'm the adult and I say we need an icecream break."   
  
"My dad says taking icecream breaks makes your pants get tighter," Wally got up but was finally smiling and that was enough for Barry.   
  
"Iris tells me I need more meat on my bones anyways."   
  
"Ewwww, didn't wanna know that," the kid's whole mood had been changed with a few little words and Barry lived for it. He loved seeing that goofy little smile Wally always had, then he gasped, "Race ya to the kitchen!"   
  
"Oh god no- Wally you're too fast for me! I won't be able to keep up!"   
  
Wally ran off, giggling the entire time and that was when Barry saw it.   
  
A bruise ran along the back side of Wally's arm, purple and green in color. It was almost too hard to see because of how dark his skin was but it was there. Barry couldn't mistake it for anything else.   
  
"Uncle Barry I won!"   
  
"Crap!! Crap I forgot to run and beat you," Barry jogged into the kitchen to meet Wally where he was already perched on the kitchen counter. "You're getting faster every day."   
  
"One day I'll be as fast as the Flash, then I'll always beat you."   
  
Barry snorted, leaning forward and hugging Wally. When Wally was little he'd instantly climb into the hug but lately he got all tense before hugging back. Maybe it was a phase, at least that's how Barry  explained it to himself at the time. But the bruise on his arm made him suspicious. He couldn't ignore it.   
  
"That's awesome but before we get this ice cream party started.. you've got a bruise on your arm. How'd you get it?" There wasn't another way to ask about it other than directly.   
  
Wally just shrugged a little, "I think I fell when I was doing the monkey bars at school. My grip isn't all that great yet."   
  
"Okay, I was just making sure," he opened the freezer and took out the carton of neopolitan, setting it on the counter. "You know if you're ever hurt you can all me, right?"   
  
"Duh, you've told me that like ten times," Wally rolled his eyes and snorted.   
  
"Just reminding you, hey grab the spoons rom under you."  
  
Wally opened the drawer and pulled out two of the spoons, "Don't we need bowls?"   
  
Barry shook his head, "Nope! We're eating it out of the carton." He looked over and saw how wide Wally's eyes were at that suggestion. Then the kid nodded with complete understanding.   
  
"Auntie Iris must be proud."   
  
He laughed like he'd never laughed before.   
  
+++  
  
Between the time Wally was 7 and when he was 9 a lot had changed and Barry made a mental note of all of it. He couldn't not do it, it was the inner investigator in him that kept that mental list. It had all started with the bruise he saw on Wally's arm, and after that he started noticing newer and newer things that collected over the weekends. Some weekends Wally didn't talk, or flinched whenever someone touched him, other weekends Barry would see bruises in odd spots and listen to whatever Wally had to say about it. Whenever he asked Mary about the bruises she always laughed and said, "Boys will be boys you know, he's just clumsy." It was true that Wally could be a very clumsy kid, but these bruises.. they were just in the weirdest places, like his wrist, side, shoulder, and at one point a dark bruise along his neck that Wally refused to talk about. "It's too embarrassing," he had told Barry very seriously.   
  
Barry couldn't get to Wally anymore either, and that was starting to scare him. They used to be incredibly close, hell. Sometimes Barry thought of Wally like a son and that probably wasn't good but it made him worry strengthen.  
  
Especially when Wally suddenly got really quiet, he spent one weekend in complete silence, only focusing on his schoolwork and books the entire time. He didn't know what was wrong but it seemed big if it had Wally so silent. Barry sat next to him and nudged his shoulder,   
  
"Hey, kiddo-"   
  
It took one nudge, one small nudge and Wally flinched away, shielding his face with his hands, "I'm sorry!" he yelled, "I didn't- I didn't mean to please don't hit me! I won't do it again, I won't I won't, I won't!"   
  
Barry could only sit there, eyes wide. It felt like a sack of bricks had hit him and he started talking fast before he could stop it, "No, no Wally! I'm not going to hit you, I would never.. Wally."   
  
Wally curled up, hands still in front of his face, "I'm sorry, I'll do better, I won't do it again. I promise, please," he was begging and it made Barry's heart tighten as Wally started crying. He was legitimately terrified that Barry was going to hit him and the thought.. it made him nauseous.   
  
"Shh, come here Wally. I won't hit you," he tried to coax him out of his ball but Wally just shook his head, face buried in his knees. "But I want to know who has."   
  
"I.. I can't," Wally whispered shakily, "I'm not allowed to."   
  
Barry bit into his lip, he had a feeling he knew who had hit Wally before to make him doubt every form of trust.  
  
+++  
  
It was the next weekend when Barry was supposed to pick Wally up to take him to Central for the weekend. He had an honest surprise for Wally and was excited to show it to him. Of course, Barry did make the entire story up. He was going to bring Wally one of the empty rings that contained his costume, and say that the Flash gave it to him as a memento for helping with a case. It was entirely plausible too, and he was excited to see Wally's face. After what happened last weekend.. he really just wanted to see Wally smile again.  
  
He pulled into the Rudy and Mary's driveway in Keystone and checked his pockets for the ring, relieved to find it was still in his coat. This would be a good weekend, he planned on telling Wally to forget about his homework and take a break, the kid damn well deserved it.   
  
What he wasn't expecting when he got out of the car was the yelling, and his instincts went into  mad over drive. From the outside it was entirely too vague, muffled yelling, what sounded like a crash but Barry had heard these noises too often in his line of work to walk away. Instead he ran into the house and the yelling only got so much worse from there, and his anger was starting to rise with every single word.   
  
"Rudy get off of him, he's just a boy!"   
  
"A boy that needs to learn some damn respect,  he will not disrespect me in my own house, under my own roof!"    
  
Barry walked slowly, he couldn't aggravate the situation. Energy twitched inside of him, dangerous and curling with every step he took. He had to remind himself to take things slow, if it was what he thought it was...   
  
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'Try to be calm Barry', he told himself, 'try to pull Wally away, don't start something with your soon to be wife's family.'  
  
Then he heard two things, one was the sharp crack of a belt, and the other was Wally.   
  
"I won't do it again! I won't!"   
  
"You said that the last time and you still did it you damned imbecile! I didn't raise you to not listen to orders!"   
  
Barry couldn't be slow anymore, he jogged into the room and his heart launched into his ears. Rudy had Wally in the corner, a belt in one hand and the other lifting him from his shirt. Wally had his head turned away, eyes squeezed shut to brace himself for the hit.   
  
He lost it.  
Before he could even think he was punching Rudy as hard as he could in the head. He watched the man drop to the floor, his head connecting with the other side of the wall. It left a heavy dent and  Barry was shaking all over, he wanted to beat Rudy, he really did but he looked down at Wally and saw what the real damage had been.   
  
Blood was dripping out of his nose and there was nothing but cold dead fear in his eyes, a bruise starting to bloom on the entire left side of his face. Rudy had hit him over the face with a belt. Barry clenched his fists, breathing hard through his teeth before turning to Mary, pointing with a shaking finger.   
  
"I'm taking him, and you two will never get him back," he didn't look to see Mary's reaction, hell he didn't even listen to her. He turned back around and walked over to Wally, kneeling in front of him and holding his arms out. "Come here."   
  
It was just like when he first met him, Wally ran into his arms and Barry picked him up slowly, trying to be wary of any damage that might've happened. Wally turned his head and buried his face into his shoulder. Barry held the back of Wally's head close and walked out of the front door with him. Within minutes his shoulder was wet with his nephew's tears and it made his chest ache as the adrenaline started to leave his system.   
  
"It's gonna be okay Walls, I'll keep you safe. They won't hurt you again," Barry kept his voice as soft as possible so he wouldn't scare Wally any more than he already had. Jesus Christ, he punched the kid's dad unconscious that couldn't have sat well with him. What had he done?  
  
Wally nodded, sniffing and looking up at Barry with big, wet eyes.   
  
"You saved me."   
  
Barry looked down at him, tucking some of his hair behind his ear and smiling at him, "Always."  
  
The softest smile came upon Wally's face and he hugged Barry as tight as he could. Barry felt both well squeezed and also like he had done something so unbelievably right that the universe might be cutting him a small break to have this time with his nephew.   
  
He opened the door to his car and set Wally down, "Seatbelt little dude,"   
  
Wally nodded and buckled himself up, bringing one knee up to his chest, making himself smaller in the seat that engulfed him.   
  
Barry hoped he could give him one more shot at a happy childhood.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my more recent 'bigger' work! Aka it probably won't be super long but it's something I'm writing to get a better understanding of Barry Allen's character and the flash family dynamic! (THIS DOES NOT TAKE PLACE IN THE CW-VERSE! EVERYTHING FROM THIS WORK IS PULLED FROM COMICS, OR THE ANIMATED FILMS) 
> 
> The update schedule is whenever I finish chapters, and edit/rewrite them. Also tags will be updated as this work progresses so be wary. 
> 
> if you wanna follow me on tumblr for updates, WiP's and general shenanigans I'm @brunchyarts.tumblr.com


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